Members of the Hindutva group staged a protest on Sunday at the National Film Archive of India in Pune for screening a film on Kashmir. Pune Police said the protesters were detained.
The protestors opposed the screening of a film called I Am Not The River Jhelum, alleging that it portrayed the Indian Army in a bad light, Scroll reported.
The film was screened on Sunday as part of the Cinemas of India event, featuring independent cinema from across India. It was organised by NFDC-NFAI, Fipresci, the India chapter of an association of film critics and film journalists from 50 countries, and the Pune International Centre.
Police said the members belonged to ‘Samasta Hindu Bandhav’, the same outfit which caused a ruckus at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) last month over a banner put up by the FTII Students’ Association on the institute premises, which said the Babri Masjid demolition was against the Constitution.
Directed by Prabhash Chandra, the award-winning film depicted life in the heavily militarised region of Kashmir.
In 2022, Chandra jointly won the FFSI KR Mohanan award for Best Debut Director from India at the International Film Festival of Kerala.
Meanwhile, the film scheduled to be screened at 6 pm was cancelled and several cinema-lovers who had congregated for the screening were sent back. Organisers said the screening of the film was cancelled due to a malfunctioning BluRay device.
